If you're lucky enough to live in or near Emporia, then you just might have been a player or spectator at our first ever Luck of the Draw skins match at Peter Pan Park. For those of you who didn't get a chance to come out to the event, here's a quick recap of how it all went down!

DD Team Manager Robert McCall did an awesome job explaining how the day was going to work. Each hole would be played by Eric McCabe, Paige Pierce, and Ricky Wysocki, and tickets drawn would determine who their partner would be. With up to $88 available to win per hole, there was a good chance to make some money and get to play with a World Champion.

With super jump putts and CTPs determining some of the holes, a joyful gallery had a great time watching the event. Players young and old got the chance to show off their skills and impress the pros with some awesome shots.

A lot of people are really into podcasts these days - they're easy to put on when you're in the car during your daily commute and they can make cleaning the house that much more bearable when you're listening to something good. If you haven't jumped on the podcast train yet, or you're just getting your feet wet, you might be surprised to learn that our very own Eric McCabe and Bobby Brown have a disc golf podcast!

Aptly named the Disc Golf Answer Man, lovers of our sport can tune in via several different ways to hear thoughts about various aspects of the game that might not get as much air time. For example, if you really want to hear all about disc molds, favorite plastics, and out of production discs, episode 182 has you covered. Intrigued about UDisc and what it can do for you? Bobby chatted with Josh and Matt from UDisc in a special episode recently.

Now, you might be wondering why we have a podcast up on YouTube, right? Our goal is to make this information as accessible as possible, so the more platforms we can share it on, the better. Episodes are produced regularly, and as you can tell by the number count we're up to, there's a whole treasure trove of good stuff to be found. Check out all of our previous episodes at the Dynamic Discs YouTube channel here!

Like many of us have experienced, we play disc golf once and instantly become hooked. That’s exactly what happened to Tony Shirley, one of the members of the Dynamic Discs team. Introduced to the sport by a ball golfing friend of his, Tony quickly latched on and has been winning tournaments left and right ever since. We wanted to learn a bit more about Tony’s game, his history with athletics, and why he’s so glad to be a part of the DD family.

Zero To Sixty On The Course

Tony didn’t really start playing many sports until his 30’s, and while he enjoyed softball, racquetball, and golf, it was disc golf that really caught his eye. He joined the PDGA in 2009 and played in 12 events during his first year. Quickly seeing wins in the Amateur division, he stepped up his game and competed, and cashed, in a handful of Open tournaments.

2010 is when he really started to ramp things up and was also eligible to compete in the Masters division. Of the 22 sanctioned events that year, he cashed in all but six of them and proved himself to be a dominating force.

Maybe it’s his love of hyzer shots that helped in his success: “I live in Texas; that is the first thing we look for in Texas is the Hyzer” he said. Shirley also notes that a lot of his enjoyment with disc golf has to do with being sponsored. “Being [a] part of Dynamic Discs has been one of the greatest adventures of my life. It's not only a disc golf company, it's my family,” Tony proudly stated.

Overcoming Challenges

It hasn’t all been fun and games for Tony, as an injury required him to have elbow surgery on his throwing arm this year. How did he adapt? “I ended up learning how to play left-handed.” Not one to let a setback get in the way, the month of April brought him some promising results: “I played my first tournament after coming back from surgery and finished [in] second place playing pretty good golf.”

Despite a heavy work schedule and the immense amount of time away from home it takes to be a touring player, Shirley remains a name to look out for amongst the Masters competitors. Every year he says he’s committed to improving his putting game, but with four wins under his belt this season, it sounds like he has things dialed in already.

The Man Behind The Discs

It’s always fun to get to know our team members on a deeper level, and Tony was quick to share about his family when asked about his life outside of disc golf. “I've been happily married for almost 23 years. I have four children and two beautiful grandchildren,” he said joyfully. An avid fly fisherman and kayaker, he’s open to just about any activity that allows him to be outdoors.

Tony has a handful of events left in the 2017 season, and we wish him continued success with his game!

In this episode of the Disc Golf Answer Man we discuss what we think are the best shapes for teepads, do you really need a floating disc, what are some of the best snacks to take on the course, and much more.

Hey guys, I'm Robert McCall, and I'm the Dynamic Discs Team Manager. Each week, I like to share a quick tip I've learned over the years.

This week's quick tip: Field Work

Fun fact for the day/forever: disc golf can be frustrating sometimes. For me, there are a few different types of frustration on the course, and each one affects me differently. Some days, I'm executing the shots and putts I want to, but the drives are getting awful kicks and the putts are getting spit out or cutting through. It's difficult to be really upset on those days because I'm doing my job and just getting unlucky in places. However, my more frustrating days come when I'm not executing shots, missing putts low, or losing confidence. Those rounds have little to do with luck and more to do with preparation and mental toughness. Both are frustrating, but I have more I can learn from the latter.

Disc golf is so multifaceted that almost every part of your game can feel perfect, but if one portion isn't just right, everything else seems to crumble with it. I've been struggling with this lately, personally. Pros and teachers always emphasize the importance of the short game, upshots, and putting, as they're considered difficult and important for scoring well. I've been pretty consistent at executing in those areas, but I've had a difficult time throwing accurate distance shots to give myself opportunities to score. I'm not failing to get opportunities to score because of bad kicks or bad luck, but rather because of imperfect tee shots that find decent spots instead of scoring spots.

When my game (or your game) feels like this, it's time for field work. Field work accomplishes a couple of important things for your game: it increases consistency in your release points and angles, and it allows you to watch your discs fly on lines that you're not accustomed to seeing. When doing field work, you can practice more throws in a shorter period of time, making it one of the most effective practice methods we currently have!

Here are a couple of field work tips:

1. If you're working on consistency and trusting your discs, use the actual discs that make up your bag. If you're working on release points or angles, use the discs in your bag along with others you'd like to test.

2. Make every throw count. Be intentional about all of your mechanics, and pay attention to the results of each throw. If you're working out hitches or unnecessary motions in your form, don't worry that the shots don't look just right or go where you want, but take note of the results so that you can adjust accordingly.

3. Throw your discs on different lines than you typically do. Try your Enforcer on a spike anhyzer, or throw your eMac Truth on a huge hyzer. Try your Escape on a roller line. When you throw your discs in an open field with no restrictions, it's easier to learn what's possible from the discs you currently use.

4. Split your field work into two sessions: open/experimental and target practice. The portion of throwing all discs on all angles falls into the open session, but I think it's important to aim and achieve specific, useful-for-the-course shots in the target practice section.

Next time you are having trouble controlling your throws or angles, give intentional field work a try. You'll likely learn something new about your discs or your form, and you'll get good practice in a condensed period of time.

How do you practice field work? Do you have methods that work well for keeping it interesting and getting past plateaus? I'd love to hear and discuss them with you! Please feel free to submit a question to the Disc Golf Answer Man podcast or reach out to me via my social media links below. See you next week!

Die-hard disc golf fans have probably scouted out courses near their annual family reunion, or maybe you’ve intentionally taken a long weekend to go play a new course a few hours from your home. But have any of you ever taken a vacation to a destination over 600 miles away just to play disc golf?

Jeremy Rusco recently met a fun couple, David and Christina, at the weekly Dynamic Discs bag tag match, and learned that they had traveled from Illinois just to check out the golf in Emporia. Our Midwest hub of disc golf is far more popular than many people might realize, as David and Christina told us a little bit about their visit and the courses they played.

Why Vacation In Emporia?

As long-time DD fans, David and Christina spent Memorial Day weekend in St. Louis and just couldn’t help but travel a little further to Emporia to see what the disc golf scene was like. They spent a handful of days playing the local courses, arranged to get a tour of the DD warehouse, and even checked out some of the other attractions the town has to offer.

Their initial thoughts? “[It’s] unlike any other place - you can tell disc golf is completely ingrained into the community. They’re so welcoming to people coming to town and playing the courses and hanging out,” shared David. We’ve always heard from GBO participants about a similar type of experience, but knowing that out-of-towners have this same observation during any time of the year is a testament to how much Emporians really love our disc golfers.

Courses And Attractions

Not wanting to waste a moment of their visit, both David and Christina hit up the courses that we locals all know and love, including Peter Pan, Country Club, Jones East and West, Olpe Lake, Hammond, and a few others. A little intimidated by long holes and challenging layouts, Christina said their first visit to Peter Pan had an unexpected surprise:

“The very first course we went to was Peter Pan, [and we] accidentally joined in their weekly league! [We] got in the middle of their group but they didn’t even care. They were super encouraging.”

David ended up playing on Jeremy’s card during the bag tag round, as Christina walked Starlin and took in the experience of local Emporia golf. The next day landed them a tour of the warehouse where they even recognized a few people from the previous night’s event. As a souvenir, they were both really excited to get a personalized DyeMax disc at the conclusion of the tour.

What else did they do while in Emporia? They raved about Radius Brewing, and also had some great eats at J’s Carry Out and Bobby D’s BBQ. On one of their more low-key days, David and Christina ventured to Twin Rivers Winery where, you guessed it, the employees there had some great recommendations for courses to play in the area. The All Veteran’s Memorial and the David Traylor Zoo also topped their list of fun non-disc golf activities.

The Underlying Message

It sounds like they had an awesome time visiting Emporia and seeing how great our disc golf community is, and it further plants the seed in our minds that more people do this than we probably even know about. Disc golf is crucial to the lifeblood of our town, as tons of people come from all over the country and infuse our community with extra revenue and the spirit of the sport we love.

Isn’t it about time that every town embrace their disc golf roots and have it become a more integral part of their community? We think so.

Hey guys, my name is Robert McCall. I’m the Team Manager for Dynamic Discs, and I’ve been playing disc golf for around 10 years. I’ve played with players from all over the world, and I’ve been doing my best to learn from as many of them as possible. In the Quick Tip series, I’m going to share something I’ve learned over the years from a combination of personal experience and expertise from other players.

This week’s Quick Tip: Mental Focus

When you play rounds of disc golf, especially on a long, elevated course, do you find that your legs feel like jello for your last few holes? Do you leave putts short and fail to commit to your angle and speed on your drives? Considering the type of course you played that day, no one would be surprised to hear that anyone wore themselves out and didn't quite have the steam to finish the round well. On the opposite end of the course spectrum, especially during tournament rounds, have you experienced the same short-putting, angle-missing, non-committing dreary finish to the round? By all logic, the shorter course shouldn't tire you out nearly as much, but people often fall prey to end-of-round poor play on all types of courses.

Disc golfers train to battle physical fatigue through field work and constant practice, but we rarely pay much attention to physical fatigue's less obvious, sinister sibling: mental fatigue. If you're like me and your mind tends to race, you likely spend a lot of time between shots thinking about what your upcoming lie might look like, what you could have done differently on the tee, your last putt that just spit out, or myriad other concerns about your round. By the time you reach the end of your round, you've worried about everything that you could, and your last 15 footer on 18 feels impossible to make.

Sports psychologists and coaches obsess over mental focus, as a person's ability to focus intently on their task is directly correlated to their ability to perform that task consistently. Eager to learn more about the mental side of disc golf, I've read several golf books on mental toughness and mental tools that top mental coaches teach. If you haven't taken some time to read books like these, I'd greatly recommend checking out books like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect by Dr. Bob Rotella or Fearless Golf by Dr. Gio Valiante.

I've gleaned a lot of useful tools for my mental game from these and other books, but I'd like to recommend one practice to you: Focus intensely on your shot for the 20-30 seconds that it takes to plan, visualize, and execute it, then let your mind rest. In between shots, I do my best to think about anything but disc golf, like a song that's been in my head, chatting with other competitors, or observing nature around me. By doing so, I'll ideally only focus intensely for 25-40 minutes of each round instead of the actual 3-4 hours the round lasts. When I'm playing well and aware that I'm executing this strategy well, I can feel a real difference in my mental fatigue and capacity at the end of each round, which is especially helpful for longer rounds and two-round days.

If you're having trouble focusing at the end of rounds or find that you're worn out mentally before it seems like you should, give this strategy a try. It's tough the first few times, because you're accustomed to thinking about disc golf exclusively, but I've had my most positive results when I've limited my disc golf thoughts to the few seconds right before throwing and while throwing. After you throw, it's almost a relaxing feeling to allow your focus to widen.

What mental focus strategies do you use on the course? I'd love to hear from you! Feel free submit a question to the Disc Golf Answer Man podcast or Anchor app or contact me via my social media links below. See you next week!

PLASTICS NOW OUT OF PRODUCTION

Keeping up with the growing demands to provide quality discs to the passionate disc golfer has proven to be a constant challenge. Many of you probably read the article about Keeping Up With Growth earlier in the year, and that was to address our challenges with keeping discs in stock on a regular basis. If you take a look at the order form today, I’m confident that you will see an order form that looks much different than it did earlier in the year with the increased availability of our most popular items. We have worked hard to improve our availability but still face constant challenges to keep up with the overwhelming growth and demand for our products.

In order to provide the best selection possible throughout the year, we have made the decision that it will be necessary to move a few more items to the out of production category to make room for the increased 2018 lineup. For the upcoming season, Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside Discs will no longer produce a few different plastic types so that we can focus on providing you with what is in the highest demand. For the remainder of 2017 and through 2018, the following plastic types will no longer be produced:

Special limited runs could be a possibility on a very rare occasion, but I would not expect that we will be able to facilitate anything in the upcoming years. It is important to remember that many of these items are still available and can still be purchased until they are sold out.